Don’t catch a virus.

Viruses, worms and trojans are often in the news these days. Before people at home had PCs, only those who worked with computers had to worry about them. Now with the Internet, Broadband, the web and e-mail used by so many of us, we all need to be awareof the risks. Apart from causing your computer misbehave, fail to start, or wiping your disk clean of your important files, the modern virus can record your passwords for your online activities, such as banking and send these to the author, or takeover your computer and use it to e-mail spam to thousands of others, or to attack companies web sites. So what do you need to do?

The first thing is that you must have a modern virus scanner and that you must update at least once a week, if not daily. So often people tell me that they have a checker, but they last updated months ago. That is not good enough in these days. The second thing is to be aware that many attacks come via e-mail and you should regard any unexpected e-mail even if it seems to be from a friend as suspect. Unless you really are sure that any attachment to an e-mail is genuine, don't open it, just delete it. It is better to be safe than sorry.

More details such as some good anti-virus vendors and other information are on the website as promised last month. The site is http://www.lordjohn.demon.co.uk/theboffin/ and I hope you find it useful. Do e-mail any suggestions or questions to theboffin@lordjohn.demon.co.uk and I will do my best to answer them.

John Kimberley